Rice duo wins Pacific Coast doubles title

Only once in the past 124 years has the annual Pacific Coast Men’s Doubles Championship been rained out.

This year’s tournament — one that saw Rice’s Gustavo Gonzalez and Bojan Szumanski defeat Filip Bergevi and Mads Engsted 7-6 in a six-game pro set — almost became the second.

Hosted at the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club, the tournament’s final match started at 7:50 p.m. — more than six hours late. The shifted schedule was difficult for Szumanski to handle, he said.

“We played all our matches in one day,” said Szumanski, an assistant coach at Rice. “I’m not used to playing competitive tennis anymore, so I was tired.”

This year’s champions had only 20 minutes between their final two matches, whereas California’s Bergevi and Engsted had about two hours. The short layoff didn’t affect either of the Rice players, Szumanski said.

“I actually think it didn’t matter because we played so much tennis the whole day,” Szumanski said. “At that point it was just about getting ready mentally.”

Tied after 12 games, the two teams went to a 12-point tiebreaker. Gonzalez and Szumanski won 7-4.

The tournament was scheduled to begin Thursday and end Sunday. The inconvenient rain showers, however, altered the schedule a bit.

“I think anytime that you have a tournament or sporting event this time of year you have to be prepared for bad weather and be prepared to do what it takes to make the event happen,” said Bill Kellogg, president of the La Jolla Beach and Tennis Club. “If you’re persistent and work hard enough, most of the time we can get through it.”

Tournament officials canceled all but three matches on Friday, and suspended all matches after 5:20 p.m. Saturday. Kellogg said. As a result, all consolation matches were canceled and the format for the remaining draw matches, except for the semifinals and final, was changed to an eight-game pro set with no-ad scoring.

All the changes the rain brought to the tournament didn’t worry Kellogg too much.

“I know from experience that if you’re there and ready to catch the opportunities when the weather does clear, there’s a really good chance you can get things done,” Kellogg said.

Maintenance crews squeegeed the courts at 6:15 a.m. in preparation for Sunday’s scheduled events — which turned out to be several more matches after all the postponements.

Known as the second-oldest tennis tournament in the U.S., the event featured more than 100 doubles teams comprised of teaching professionals, junior players, college coaches, former tour players, and current players from 17 intercollegiate teams — including No. 2 ranked USC, No. 4 UCLA, No. 9 California, and No. 19 Pepperdine.